When you think of the novels of Jane Austen, if you were pressed to think of the most odious of all her characters, who would you choose? One of my favourites, so to speak, is Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Pride and Prejudice. Whilst not an outright villain, she is utterly – sometimes deliciously – contemptible, a foil to the happy coming together of Lizzy and Darcy, and someone who believes she always knows best. I enjoy her, to be honest, for all the reasons that I’m meant to: she is comically unlikeable and I feel like I’m in on a joke with Lizzy Bennet.

So, enter Claudia Gray’s new novel in her wonderful Mr Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery series, in which there has been an attempt on the life of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, great-aunt of Mr Jonathan Darcy. I am thrilled to have been gifted a copy of it by Vintage Anchor and Austenprose, in exchange for sharing my honest review with you today (on this auspicious day of summer solstice!)!

Welcome to Rosings

Knowing of her great-nephew’s mystery-solving prowess in conjunction with his friend Miss Juliet Tilney, Lady Catherine invites the two young people to Rosings to solve the mystery of who, exactly, has it in for her. Jonathan arrives with his father (Mr and Mrs Darcy believing it best that Lizzy perhaps stay away), and Juliet with hers, after a year apart from each other.

Lady Catherine welcomes them in – as best as she can – to Rosings Park, where they immediately set to work questioning everyone. Let’s be honest: Lady Catherine has offended many people in her time, so there are quite a lot of options to contend with…

We are introduced to some familiar faces: Mr Collins, Mrs Charlotte Collins, Anne de Bourgh and Colonel Fitzwilliam (an underrated character, in my opinion!). Except, in the intervening years since the events of Pride and Prejudice, Anne de Bourgh is now Anne Fitzwilliam, having married the lovely Colonel, and are parents to Peter, whom Lady Catherine forced them to send away to school because she believed it best.

Other new faces are the children of the Collinses: Katy (Catherine) and Deb (De Bourgh), younger than Jonathan and Juliet, and, due to various circumstances, included in the questioning of the two young sleuths.

As Jonathan and Juliet try their best to work quickly, more attempts are made upon the life of Lady Catherine, and it seems like everybody at Rosings and Hunsford has something to hide… but does that make them the killer?

Return of our favourite detectives

I love Gray’s characterisation of Jonathan and Juliet. It would be very easy to make them carbon copies of their parents, Jonathan with the aloofness of Mr Darcy and Juliet with the unending curiosity of Catherine Morland.

Instead, they are wonderful composites, with their own unique traits that seem to endlessly pull them together – I am desperate for them to fall in love, and Gray does a wonderful job of teasing feelings amongst all the cosy mystery melodrama. The two of them dance around each other, whilst falling into the comfort of each other’s company.

A happy (?) ending for Anne de Bourgh

I should stress, this part of my review is NOT a spoiler! One of the things I liked best about this novel and its imagined afterlife of Pride and Prejudice is the exploration of the relationship between Lady Catherine and her sickly daughter Anne, and the marriage Gray has written between Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

It is a great opportunity to understand some of the dynamics of marriage amongst aristocratic families, as well as the impact of socialisation, parental control and financial concerns upon the lives of young women who need to make a match. The glimpses of the decision of Colonel Fitzwilliam to propose to Anne in the wake of the collapse of the imagined match between Anne and Mr Darcy are really interesting, and honestly exciting.

A perilous tale

As with Gray’s two previous mysteries (read my review here), I completely devoured this novel.

My favourite reading as a child was Nancy Drew, and there is something so nostalgic and cosy about reading a mystery like this, whilst dipping into the lives of my favourite Austen characters. I’ve become quickly attached to Juliet and Jonathan, and I hope that we get more tales of their investigations!

I thoroughly recommend this novel if you love Austenesque fiction and mysteries, and it is out now!

Thank you to Vintage Anchor and Austenprose for gifting me a copy of the book.